Clayton Closson

That’s right, the DIFF blog is officially retired. We started the DIFF blog over four years ago as our original foray into blogging here at Quicken Loans. We wanted a blog. And we wanted to try something different. So, as part of a recruiting campaign, we launched the blog and wrote about things we found around the globe that made a difference.

The recruiting campaign ended a few months later, but the blog lived on. We’ve had several dozen writers over the years contribute to the blog. Almost a thousand posts in 4 years.

My favorite?

Just about a month or so after we launched the blog, my wife’s grandfather died. He had such an inspiring story, I wrote about it here. It pretty much cemented me as one of the main contributors to the blog for the next four years. Check it out: Requiem for a Warrior.

One personal note about the DIFF blog. It was my writing here that eventually led to my current position leading the Quicken Loans Brainstorm team (content team). It’s funny how things like this happen. An opportunity opened up that I didn’t plan, and I can thank the DIFF for setting the stage for it.

I’ll miss this blog. I’m the first to admit I haven’t always given the DIFF blog the attention it deserved. Seems like other business priorities often got in the way of spending a lot of time writing here. But I never gave up on it and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working this for the past four and half years. Interestingly enough, I’ve never really considered myself a blogger. Just a writer working at a mortgage company that fell upon a pretty cool assignment.

So there you have it.

The time has come to say goodbye.

Goodbye to the DIFF blog, one of the favorite projects of my professional life..

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Today, Computerworld Magazine released its list of the “100 Best Places to Work in IT” and for the 7th straight year Quicken Loans is among the top-15 places to work on this prestigious list, coming in at #10. That’s right, the top-10 of all companies in America.

But that’s just the beginning.

Over the weekend, the Cleveland Plain Dealer also named Quicken Loans’ Cleveland Web Center as the 4th best mid-size company to work for in northern Ohio (they listed us as mid-size because they only surveyed our Ohio team members) in its annual “Top Workplaces” survey. Way to go Crown Jewel (it’s what the folks in the Cleveland Web Center call their site)!!!!!!!!!

The best part of being on both lists is that the ranking is based almost entirely on Quicken Loans team member survey responses. Makes me proud.

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Today is National Eat Your Veggies Day – I’m eating a salad as I write this.

I love vegetables. So does Michelle Busch of Title Source (pictured left), who showed up at work today as a carrot. Way to go Michelle!

I have no idea how or why this is National Eat Your Vegetables Day, but I don’t care. I’m eating my vegetables in honor of it.

As I just said, I had a salad today. I also had some miso soup with carrots and daikon radish and mushrooms and some other funky Japanese vegetables.

And tonight I’m going to have some more veggies, no doubt.

I actually eat vegetables every day. I’m no health nut, mind you. I eat meat probably a lot more than I should and I love a big juicy rack of ribs a LOT MORE than I should.

I frankly love food. Since vegetables are food, I love them. In fact, there aren’t any vegetables I’ve had that I don’t like. I’ve had plenty of meat products that I didn’t like and made me want to barf, but not really any veggies.

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It was an exciting morning for Bizdom U, which was visited by former Massachusetts Governor and Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney.

Romney stopped by Bizdom as part of sweep through Michigan to address the media and sit down to chat with some of the Bizdom entrepreneurs.

During a roundtable discussion, entrepreneurs gave a brief presentation about their businesses, asked questions and received suggestions from Romney, a former venture capitalist. He even asked new Bizdom U company Picket Report for some info about the neighborhood surrounding 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington D.C., the home he is hoping to relocate to.

Romney also spoke about the state of Michigan and noted that it is organizations like job-producing Bizdom U that will truly make a positive impact on our economy.

Check out this article from the Detroit Free Press for more information.

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Nick Gilbert, son of Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert, is representing the Cleveland Cavaliers in the upcoming NBA draft lottery on May 17, 2011.

That’s a pretty cool experience for an inspiring 14-year old from metro Detroit. Nick is also the 2011 National Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF) Ambassador. As the 2011 CTF ambassador, Nick’s role as the Cavaliers on-stage representative comes with important additional responsibilities – including raising awareness for the battle against nuerofibromatosis (NF). Nick Gilbert was born with NF more than 14 years ago (more info on this in the press release below).

Congrats Nick. Have a wonderful day on the 17th and continue all the great things you do!

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WXYZ’s Detroit 2020 recently featured Quicken Loans Chairman Dan Gilbert, discussing his take on downtown Detroit’s future. Here’s some info from their website:

“Dan Gilbert wants to help Detroit become prosperous again. And he’s putting his money where his mouth is.

The Chairman of Quicken Loans is moving 2,000 more workers from the suburbs to the heart of downtown Detroit.

Gilbert tells Detroit 2020 his company is talking to Apple about bring a retail store to the Chase Tower, which he recently bought. Many of the workers coming downtown will be working at the Chase building.

Quicken Loans is the nation’s largest online lender. Inside their headquarters at the Compuware Building, the atmosphere is Google-esque…with a ping-pong table, a slushy machine, and popcorn. It’s also open, airy and colorful.

Gilbert also has companies that invest in entrepreneurs, which he believes are key to the city’s turnaround.

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Sometimes you read something that makes you proud. Proud to be part of an organization that does great things for people. Sometimes those people are people you’ve never heard of.

This is one of those times.

Here’s the recap: USA Today and the Detroit Free Press reported yesterday about Wayne State University student Victor Chukwueke, a Nigerian national, who dreamed of reuniting with his family that he left 10 years ago to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor in the US. Chekwueke suffers from neurofibromatosis, a disorder that causes tumor growth in the nervous system.

Despite this, Chukweke is graduating from WSU with honors and is speaking to his graduating class at commencement.

Here’s where Quicken Loans got involved. Chukweke wanted his mother to attend his graduation and Dan Gilbert (Quicken Loans founder) used connections to make sure that happened. From the Freep:

“I was reading the paper and the story caught my eye,” said Joyce Keller, philanthropic adviser for the company. Dan Gilbert…has a relative with neurofibromatosis. “With everything (Chukwueke) has been through and this one obstacle still standing in his way, it was an easy decision to see if we could help.”

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Second of all, here’s my story of how I tasted Simply Suzanne’s Granola.

It started at the IDEA Detroit conference. Suzanne, the wizard behind the amazing concoctions, was a featured speaker at the conference (topic: why she chose to create her business in Detroit). During her presentation, Suzanne graciously handed out samples of her granola. I happily accepted one (the cherry flavor).

When I got home, I put my granola sample on my kitchen counter and relished the thought of enjoying it the next morning. That never happened.

Grover, my 11 year old mutt, ate it instead. I was mad.

So I went to Simply Suzanne’s Facebook page and left a note about how sad I was that Grover ate my granola. Suzanne replied and ended up giving me TWO free bags of granola to try.